The internet has a wealth of information for jobseekers, however knowing where to look for quality information, and then making sense of it, is sometimes difficult. Wouldn’t it be great to have a helping hand to guide you though the information maze?
ASK (Adult Skills and Knowledge) is an innovative chat service being piloted by the State Library of Queensland. The service is for adults looking for information about careers, jobs, resumes, job applications, interview technique, apprenticeships, study, volunteer work and more.
Log on to www.slq.qld.gov.au/ask and click on the big ASK logo, and a special chat window will open in a new screen. Simply enter your name, email address and a question, and a librarian from the State Library will answer your request. If you are not familiar with ‘chatting’ on the internet, it is very similar to having a conversation with someone face-to-face. As the librarians type in an answer, it appears on your screen. You can then respond with a comment or another question, and the conversation or chat goes back and forth until your question is answered. The really smart thing about the ASK service is that they can ‘push’ webpages to your screen. For example, if you need information about what study courses are available in a certain trade, the librarian can do some internet searching for you, and then ‘push’ a suitable webpage that may answer your question, to your screen. You can then read and navigate through that screen, and ask further questions using the chat section.
Finally, once the chat session is complete, the ASK program produces a list of all the websites that the librarian ‘pushed’ to your screen during the session. This is invaluable as it provides a ready list of websites to visit later, without having to search for them all over again. If you supply an email address when you log into the service, you will receive a transcript of the entire conversation you had with the librarian.
If your question really stumps the librarian, they will get back to you within five working days.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Monday, March 21, 2005
Uni experts lend a hand
University and academic institutions such as James Cook University are a very useful resource when seeking quality information on the internet. With the right search approach you may be able to access Subject Guides recommending specific internet resources in the area you need. Subject Guides are usually developed by librarians in consultation with faculty and lecturers in the courses offered by educational institutions. The guides are usually constantly updated, monitored for quality, and reviewed for relevance by information experts in their field who keep up to date with what is required by lecturers, course providers and industry.
Some resources listed will only be accessible by university staff and students, but often there will be free online resources selected and recommended because of their quality. These websites are often appropriate for school use and general knowledge.
There a couple of different search techniques to try when seeking online academic Subject Guides.
It is possible to search Google University (http://www.google.com.au/options/universities.html) which lists universities alphabetically and has worldwide coverage. Only some of the major Australian universities are listed, such as Monash University, QUT and University of New South Wales. Click on the link to the university and Google University allows you to search within that institution's web pages. For example, clicking on University of New South Wales and entering “criminal law subject guide” as a search takes you straight to the Library's Subject Guide page for criminal law.
An alternative approach is to first find the university home page using a search engine. Once within that homepage, locate the Library homepage and either browse looking for Subject Guides, Subject Resources or Pathfinders, or search within the site if such a facility is available.
The third way to search is to choose Advanced Search within a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Alltheweb. Type your topic name together with the words “subject guide” in the search space, for instance “biology subject guide”. Most importantly, restrict the domain in advanced search to .edu or .edu.au to restrict the results to educational sites within Australia. In this example the first result returned in a Google Advanced search was the Central Queensland University's Biology Subject Guide which provides a list of Biology-related web sites.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
Some resources listed will only be accessible by university staff and students, but often there will be free online resources selected and recommended because of their quality. These websites are often appropriate for school use and general knowledge.
There a couple of different search techniques to try when seeking online academic Subject Guides.
It is possible to search Google University (http://www.google.com.au/options/universities.html) which lists universities alphabetically and has worldwide coverage. Only some of the major Australian universities are listed, such as Monash University, QUT and University of New South Wales. Click on the link to the university and Google University allows you to search within that institution's web pages. For example, clicking on University of New South Wales and entering “criminal law subject guide” as a search takes you straight to the Library's Subject Guide page for criminal law.
An alternative approach is to first find the university home page using a search engine. Once within that homepage, locate the Library homepage and either browse looking for Subject Guides, Subject Resources or Pathfinders, or search within the site if such a facility is available.
The third way to search is to choose Advanced Search within a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Alltheweb. Type your topic name together with the words “subject guide” in the search space, for instance “biology subject guide”. Most importantly, restrict the domain in advanced search to .edu or .edu.au to restrict the results to educational sites within Australia. In this example the first result returned in a Google Advanced search was the Central Queensland University's Biology Subject Guide which provides a list of Biology-related web sites.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
Monday, March 14, 2005
Searching for Answers
When you think about your internet search habits, would you agree that you’re often searching for an ‘answer’, rather than a ‘webpage’? For example, you may want to check what time a movie is screening this weekend. To find that, you first have to search for the cinema’s homepage, then look up the movie times. Wouldn’t it be great if you could find the movie times with one quick search? Some of the bigger search tools such as Yahoo! (http://au.yahoo.com/) now have a range of shortcuts which help you to find ‘answers’ quickly and easily, without wading through ‘websites’.
If you need to find out the current time in London, you could type search words such as “international time” or “time conversion” into a search engine, choose a likely website from the results, then use the conversion tool on that website. With Yahoo!, simply type “time in London”, and the first result presented is a Yahoo! Shortcut which tells you the current time and date in London, UK. Below that you will find the usual list of search results.
Try typing “weather Perth” into Yahoo! and the first result is another Yahoo! Shortcut, this time showing the current time, temperature, conditions (raining, fine etc) and expected high and low temperatures for Perth.
A full list of Shortcuts relevant to Australian searchers is available at http://au.docs.yahoo.com/info/search/shortcuts.html
To see how far Yahoo! has extended this type of service, check out the US Shortcuts list at http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/
Another useful service that Yahoo! offers is its speciality sites (http://au.docs.yahoo.com/more/index.html), which act as one-stop-shops for a variety of searches, products and services. For example, the Sports area has a NRL site at http://au.sports.yahoo.com/nrl/ where you can keep track of Rugby League news, check the points table, enter your comments in a discussion board, get information about the teams and much more. Check out the other specialty services such as News, Finance, Cars, Real Estate and Jobs.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
If you need to find out the current time in London, you could type search words such as “international time” or “time conversion” into a search engine, choose a likely website from the results, then use the conversion tool on that website. With Yahoo!, simply type “time in London”, and the first result presented is a Yahoo! Shortcut which tells you the current time and date in London, UK. Below that you will find the usual list of search results.
Try typing “weather Perth” into Yahoo! and the first result is another Yahoo! Shortcut, this time showing the current time, temperature, conditions (raining, fine etc) and expected high and low temperatures for Perth.
A full list of Shortcuts relevant to Australian searchers is available at http://au.docs.yahoo.com/info/search/shortcuts.html
To see how far Yahoo! has extended this type of service, check out the US Shortcuts list at http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/
Another useful service that Yahoo! offers is its speciality sites (http://au.docs.yahoo.com/more/index.html), which act as one-stop-shops for a variety of searches, products and services. For example, the Sports area has a NRL site at http://au.sports.yahoo.com/nrl/ where you can keep track of Rugby League news, check the points table, enter your comments in a discussion board, get information about the teams and much more. Check out the other specialty services such as News, Finance, Cars, Real Estate and Jobs.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
Searching with A9
The Internet is easy to use, but using it well is not easy.
Have you ever discovered a really useful website and then not been able to locate it again? This is not an uncommon event, however there is a search engine that will remember your search history for you and store it so that you can access it from any computer.
A9 (www.a9.com) is a search engine subsidised by Amazon.com (a premier online bookstore). It combines a number of searchable online resources into one site. For instance, enter a keyword/s to describe your topic and you’ll be able to view a number of search results all on one page, displayed in a flexible column format which can be customised by you. There will be a web and image result sourced from Google, a movie result courtesy of the Internet Movie Database and a reference result from GuruNet. GuruNet is a search engine which provides access to a range of reference tools such as dictionaries and encyclopedias. Consequently it will not direct you to other websites but instantly provide you with facts and information.
A9’s ability to search a number of resources at once is a great time saver, however it’s the additional features made available through the toolbar that make it truly worthwhile. The A9 toolbar, which can be picked up from the site, should only take a few minutes to download.
Once you have it, A9 will log where you have been on the Internet and will indicate when you last visited a site eg “clicked on 1 month ago” or “clicked on 2 hours ago”.
It will reference the web pages you saw and automatically save your entries. You can even make a diary of personalised notes about the web pages you have viewed. Other features include the ability to create your own bookmarks and automatic highlighting of search terms. Your bookmarks, search history and diary are stored on the A9 servers and are therefore accessible from any computer you use.
Useful tools such as those provided by A9 give all of us the opportunity to increase our Internet research skills by tracking and documenting our own personal searching behaviour. It allows us the chance to reflect on our previous search strategies via the diary and search history and become more efficient users of the Internet.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
Have you ever discovered a really useful website and then not been able to locate it again? This is not an uncommon event, however there is a search engine that will remember your search history for you and store it so that you can access it from any computer.
A9 (www.a9.com) is a search engine subsidised by Amazon.com (a premier online bookstore). It combines a number of searchable online resources into one site. For instance, enter a keyword/s to describe your topic and you’ll be able to view a number of search results all on one page, displayed in a flexible column format which can be customised by you. There will be a web and image result sourced from Google, a movie result courtesy of the Internet Movie Database and a reference result from GuruNet. GuruNet is a search engine which provides access to a range of reference tools such as dictionaries and encyclopedias. Consequently it will not direct you to other websites but instantly provide you with facts and information.
A9’s ability to search a number of resources at once is a great time saver, however it’s the additional features made available through the toolbar that make it truly worthwhile. The A9 toolbar, which can be picked up from the site, should only take a few minutes to download.
Once you have it, A9 will log where you have been on the Internet and will indicate when you last visited a site eg “clicked on 1 month ago” or “clicked on 2 hours ago”.
It will reference the web pages you saw and automatically save your entries. You can even make a diary of personalised notes about the web pages you have viewed. Other features include the ability to create your own bookmarks and automatic highlighting of search terms. Your bookmarks, search history and diary are stored on the A9 servers and are therefore accessible from any computer you use.
Useful tools such as those provided by A9 give all of us the opportunity to increase our Internet research skills by tracking and documenting our own personal searching behaviour. It allows us the chance to reflect on our previous search strategies via the diary and search history and become more efficient users of the Internet.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
Searching the Family Tree
The Internet is an excellent resource to use when undertaking research in family history. In fact researching one’s family tree and ancestral background can often lead to people’s first taste of the internet and there are plenty of quality research avenues to follow. The topic is too broad to review in depth therefore this article will refer you to key sites where you can find guides to Internet resources on family history.
Searchlight recommends using the experience and know-how of the National Library of Australia (NLA) and the State Library of Queensland (SLQ). These institutions hold specialist collections in family history and field questions from all over Australia about the topic on a daily basis. Both libraries have developed excellent subject guides which list freely available internet resources on family history.
The SLQ website for family and local historians (www.slq.qld.gov.au/serv/fh) has some very handy guides about how to start your research. Topics include How to trace your family tree and Convict information: getting started. The guide also recommends searching in Queensland Web or Netlinks (www.slq.qld.gov.au/find/sites) where you can browse through geographical and other subdivisions. This is a great way to find the details of family history associations in other towns and cities.
THE NLA’s guide is titled Australian Family History and Genealogy on the Internet (www.nla.gov.au/oz/genelist.html). This guide lists the key original source websites which can provide records on births, marriages, deaths, cemeteries, convicts, military/service records and more. For those searching for ancestral information overseas, the NLA site points to important and interesting resources such as the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, where you can search through the accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court!
For a more local flavour the Family History Association of North Queensland Inc. has a website useful for those interested in their North Queensland origins located at http://members.hn.ozemail.com.au/fhanq
Take advantage of the free valuable expertise and collections that your State and National libraries have to offer to make your family history fact finding as successful as possible. Both these institutions provide email and telephone contact details for further advice.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
Searchlight recommends using the experience and know-how of the National Library of Australia (NLA) and the State Library of Queensland (SLQ). These institutions hold specialist collections in family history and field questions from all over Australia about the topic on a daily basis. Both libraries have developed excellent subject guides which list freely available internet resources on family history.
The SLQ website for family and local historians (www.slq.qld.gov.au/serv/fh) has some very handy guides about how to start your research. Topics include How to trace your family tree and Convict information: getting started. The guide also recommends searching in Queensland Web or Netlinks (www.slq.qld.gov.au/find/sites) where you can browse through geographical and other subdivisions. This is a great way to find the details of family history associations in other towns and cities.
THE NLA’s guide is titled Australian Family History and Genealogy on the Internet (www.nla.gov.au/oz/genelist.html). This guide lists the key original source websites which can provide records on births, marriages, deaths, cemeteries, convicts, military/service records and more. For those searching for ancestral information overseas, the NLA site points to important and interesting resources such as the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, where you can search through the accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court!
For a more local flavour the Family History Association of North Queensland Inc. has a website useful for those interested in their North Queensland origins located at http://members.hn.ozemail.com.au/fhanq
Take advantage of the free valuable expertise and collections that your State and National libraries have to offer to make your family history fact finding as successful as possible. Both these institutions provide email and telephone contact details for further advice.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
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